Taken in the years 1656-1658, the Down Survey of Ireland is the
first ever detailed land survey on a national scale anywhere in
the world. The survey sought to measure all the land to be
forfeited by the Catholic Irish in order to facilitate its
redistribution to Merchant Adventurers and English soldiers.
Copies of these maps have survived in dozens of libraries and
archives throughout Ireland and Britain, as well as in the
National Library of France. This Project has brought together
for the first time in over 300 years all the surviving maps,
digitised them and made them available as a public online
resource.

It's a fascinating glimpse into lands your ancestors once lived on. There are two parts to the site - the Down Survey Maps and the Historical GIS

The Down
Survey Maps section comprises digital images of all the
surviving Down Survey maps at parish, barony and county
level. The written descriptions (terrier) of each barony and
parish that accompanied the original maps have also been
included. The second section, Historical GIS, brings together the
maps and related contemporaneous sources – Books of Survey
and Distribution, the 1641 Depositions, the 1659 Census – in a
Geographical Information System (GIS).

Clicking on the Historical GIS tab takes you to a searchable database for the following:

2 comments:

Hi Lorine I find Irish research intimidating both for my Cooke/Storey line of County Cavan and my McGinn/McGea/MaGin/etc line supposedly from County Down. We have not even found a Church birth record for my GGGM Sarah Jane Griffith, d/o Sir Richard John, later the Evaluator of Ireland. She was expunged from the Griffith family and completely disowned for marrying Robert Cooke, an estate gardener. Ontario, Leeds County, Brockville area was their home after fleeing Ireland. My understanding is that if a researcher does not know a parish or a townland it is pretty hopeless. Best, Rob

New!

Death Finds a Way: A Janie Riley Mystery by Lorine McGinnis SchulzeJanie Riley is an avid genealogist with a habit of stumbling on to dead bodies. She and her husband head to Salt Lake City Utah to research Janie's elusive 4th great-grandmother. But her search into the past leads her to a dark secret. Can she solve the mysteries of the past and the present before disaster strikes?

I'm an incurable collector of
antiques, an avid genealogist and a messy but creative cook! I blog, i write history and genealogy books. My main genealogy website is Olive Tree Genealogy http://olivetreegenealogy.com/

Lorine is the author of many published genealogical and historical
articles and books available at
http://LorineSchulze.com